File system archives are best performed as a cron (run-parts or
run-crons or /etc/cron.d) task.

I use xfsdump(8) since all my file systems but /boot are XFS. I schedule
a level 0 dump once a month, a level 1 every two weeks, a level 2 every
4 days and a level 3 every 6 hours using a custom run-crons I wrote.

My /boot partition is EXT4 due to limitation of some ramfs (initrd) file
systems and grub. It is archived with dump(8).

All of this is archived to an internal 8 TiB drive (my system has 8
internal SATA/6 connections).

I also do a master archive to an external (eSATA) 10 TiB drive once
every 3-4 months. This consists of copying the scheduled archives and
creating a compressed tar of my NAS. The disk is installed in a shielded
metal case and is kept is a safe location between archives.

I have used something like this for over 30 years on Unix and Linux, for
both business and personal computer systems. In the past, I have used
various tape systems, but high capacity tape is now too expensive for
home use and overkill. None the less, for a business, I would recommend
Linear Tape Open technology.

YMMV

On 5/26/24 14:27, Antony Stone wrote:
> On Sunday 26 May 2024 at 20:08:19, nisp1953 via Dng wrote:
>
>> On Sun, May 26, 2024 at 9:26 AM Antony Stone wrote:
>>
>>> My first question is "what / where can you, or do you want to, backup
>>> this data to?"
>> I should have mentioned that. I back them up to external USB hard
>> drives. I have 2 hard drives. I keep one in a safety deposit box at the
>> bank. I backup to the other one all throughout the week. The following
>> Monday, I swap hard drives.
>> I am backing up about 34 GB of data. It's small but important.
> In that case I would not even consider incremental backups - I would take a
> full backup every day, and write it to a different directory (or even
> partition) on the external drive. I cannot imagine you are using disks
> smaller than 7 x 34 Gb = 238 Gbytes.
>
> I mention using separate partitions because with modern GPT partitioning you
> can have (I think) up to 256 partitions on a physical device (compared to 7
> with MBR), and a file system could become corrupt more likely than the entire
> disk becoming unreadable, so keeping each day in a different partition is safer
> than creating daily subdirectories in a single file system.
>
> In my opinion one of the most important things about a backup system is "how
> simple is it to identify where the data I need to restore is?" and the next
> most important is "how simple is it to restore that data?" possibly without
> wanting to restore the entire backup.
>
> Therefore a simple direct copy of the data in a normal file system which you
> can look through and copy from, using completely standard commands, would be
> my preference.
>
>
> Antony.
>

-- 
William (Bill) Moss
bill.m.moss@???
NY (USA)
     Those who will not reason, are bigots,
     those who cannot, are fools,
     and those who dare not, are slaves.
Lord Byron

     Justice will not be served until those who are
     unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
Benjamin Franklin

     When the people fear the government there is
     tyranny, when the government fears the people
     there is liberty.
John Basil Barnhill